While I understand that the Economist Style Guide does not require commas after all introductory clauses, it seems natural to include them after long ones. Commas would have been useful after the clauses: "After one of the steepest declines in history," and "When it split from Pakistan in 1971."

Arvind - and I read The Economist article as crediting all the peoples/womens/youth's grassroots networking and collaboration entrepreneurship - sometimes empowered by different combinations of the 4 actors you mention. Being someone who loves to search The Economist archives for bottom-up collaboration frameworks, I can't help but think that 2 of the greatest tragedies to greet the birth of a new nation - the local cyclone that wiped up half a million people but became the birth of BRAC brand as work's number 1 grassroots disaster relief NGO, and the million person famine that got yunus out of the macroeconomic classroom - have accidentally stimulated inter-generational investment maps in how to go beyond top-down aid because such trickle down processes seldom generate economic impacts and even less seldom multiply transparent relationship flows. http://considerbangladesh.com

The Economist was also Entrepreneurial Revolutionary at its 1843 founding. Being an end-hunger social action/mediation devised by Scot James Wilson to purge The Empire's parliament of the majority of his fellow MPs sponsored by vested interests of the 0.1% not the sustainability of the 99.9%. As Keynes general theory advised all young people to constantly question- who's economics and politics are you being ruled by??? Because the first joyful idea that all 21st C societies of the first net generation need to share about innovation is that the maths of compound system impacts that makes the 0.1% bigger can never be resolved with what entreprenurially sustains the lifetime productivities of the 99.9%

Whilst it's great to see some positive news about the lives of Bangladesh's poor, it's a shame that the article did not mention Bangladesh's abysmal human rights record in its Chittagong Hill Tracts region. The self-sufficient Jumma tribal people are still facing violent attacks from the government-sponsored settlers, with the complicity and support of the Bangladesh army, which dominates the region. Jumma girls and women are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and violence at the hands of settlers and the security forces. We cannot begin to celebrate the progress made in Bangladesh until the promises of the historic 1997 peace accord are met; Jumma land rights are recognised and the violence against Jumma peoples is stopped.

Its really a lovely story and its nice to see Bangladesh getting some positive reports.
One thing does intrigue me though: in microfinance we have so much difficulty proving impact of anything. Yet the Economist is so simply able to discern that the credit should go to BRAC and NGOs and not to Grameen nor to the government.
I wonder how they do it.

This is a great piece that shows the advances that Bangladesh has made, with investment in girls and women being an important part of this social development. Education has been a key part of the progress. Our Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that Bangladesh has succeeded in narrowing inequalities in education for poor girls far more than its neighbours: http://efareport.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/girls-education-in-pakistan-vi...

One reason for this success is the investment in stipends for girls which has led to a massive increase in their enrolment in primary and secondary schools. In 1999, 38% were in secondary school, rising to 60% a decade later.

Fantastic report,thanks for the report.Goldman Sachs predicted seven years back about the future of Bangladesh by 2030 that it would be a middle income country with a robust economy(Report on BRIC+11). It would be almost double what they predicted we believe.The knowledge based N-generation will shut all most corrupt govt officials from Civil and Military,politicians those are pulling down the development of Bangladesh.We want to be the seventh largest economy since our population is seventh by then.Our predecessor Dr F R khan engineered the then world tallest building of the world Sears Tower(Wills Tower)and Hancock Tower in 60s in USA.Hope to build tallest building in BD within that period mentioned above and our new face is Muhammad Yunus for the world.

Kudos to the economist of shining a light on the progress in Bangladesh. There has been much pioneering work, not the least of which has been done by Muhammad Yunus. While I've had the pleasure of hearing this story passionately discussed by Mr. Yunus, this article does a good job of conveying some of the successes in Bangladesh. If only the government could clean up its act -- there are huge amounts yet to be done in absolute terms, but the progress is inspirational.

All credit go to the common people of Bangladesh. With all the corruption within the government and other institutions this has been a remarkable journey by Bangladeshis. If we could control the corruption to some extent, Bangladesh would have been in a much better place by now. Wish we see those days in near future.

Hats off to the hard working Bangladeshis. They have made Henry Kissinger to swallow the bitter pill he had prescribed. It is good he is still around and we would request our Government to invite him to visit Bangladesh to see for himself how we are doing? We are proud to be Bangladeshis.

There are some significant development of Bangladesh in primary education, Agriculture and social safety net programs. 16 million primary students are getting free new book on 1st January, 8 million of them are getting scholarship for coming school. from 2009 more than 60 thousand primary teacher ( 60 % of them female)has been recruited . Primary Completion Examination has been introduced. This measure attracted the parents , because after successful completion of primary education every students are getting a certificate.

In agriculture there are huge subsidies. Fertilizer subsidy, subsidy in electric bills of irrigation equipments, secured available power supply in rural irrigation seasons are some of the significant policy measures taken. Now it is reality that Bangladesh is able to feed its people. We expect some more discussion regarding these issues.

2.5 million people are getting old age allowance,1 million widows getting allowances, 1 million women receiving 30 kg of food grains in every month,34 million Vulnerable Group Feeding card has been provided this fiscal year,100 thousand poor lactating mother are getting allowances. These are happening in Bangladesh.

There are elected local governments in four tier of local governments Institutions . Of them 15000 women elected as local government representatives directly by public votes. All social safety net program carried out through Local Government Institutions lead by elected representatives.

There are some significant development of Bangladesh in primary education, Agriculture and social safety net programs. 16 million primary students are getting free new book on 1st January, 8 million of them are getting scholarship for coming school. from 2009 more than 60 thousand primary teacher ( 60 % of them female)has been recruited . Primary Completion Examination has been introduced. This measure attracted the parents , because after successful completion of primary education every students are getting a certificate.

In agriculture there are huge subsidies. Fertilizer subsidy, subsidy in electric bills of irrigation equipments, secured available power supply in rural irrigation seasons are some of the significant policy measures taken. Now it is reality that Bangladesh is able to feed its people. We expect some more discussion regarding these issues.

2.5 million people are getting old age allowance,1 million widows getting allowances, 1 million women receiving 30 kg of food grains in every month,34 million Vulnerable Group Feeding card has been provided this fiscal year,100 thousand poor lactating mother are getting allowances. These are happening in Bangladesh.

There are elected local governments in four tier of local governments Institutions . Of them 15000 women elected as local government representatives directly by public votes. All social safety net program carried out through Local Government Institutions lead by elected representatives.

The Economist is truly correct using the word "Stunted" for the private sector. However, it is not the private sector, it is the system and the govenrment that stigmatized private sector as "Stunted". The Economist should have also explained in this fantastic article on Bangladesh if there are any encouragements and incentives for the private venturists to go ahead or are being cutched?

The governement and its political wing are not benign at all to create a business atmosphere rather impedes the sector. The government has officially banned gas connection since it assumed power. There was no electricity connections till June 2012; though it has started giving new connections, the price for each unit is astronomical, it is even more expensive than that of a developed country. More than 5000 new apartments were waiting for three years to get electricity connection, and gas is still a golden deer. In the 10th biggest city of the world, where accomodation is a big crisis, 5000 flats are deserted for the last three years.

The condition of main roads, highways looks like it is a war torn country like Syria. Everybody knows, in this free economy, smooth communication plays the biggest role to move the economy. The present road condition is no better than 1972, soon after the country was ravaged by the liberation war.

To seek permission for starting a business, the red tape is the longest on this planet. Getting frustrated to get permission, lots of venturists abandoned their ambition to exploit the cheapest labor on the globe.

And the latest addition is the extortion from the govt. backed extortionists. The governments silence and at some places even encouragement to the extortiontists let the venturists to count hefty amount to start up the business.

The path to a Bengali nation building that started in 1971 from the clutches of Arabic imperialism backed Moslem Western India aka Pakistan with significant assistance from Hindu majority secular India (desparate to distintegrate the nascent but troublesome Pakistan to make it a point that religion alone cannot be basis of breakup of India) was jolted in her quest for freedom, democracy, rationalism, humanism, prosperity in face of regional powerplay by India, Pakistan, China and Myanmar and endemic corruption, overpopulation, scare resources, natural disasters, rising fundamentalism. After accepting Arabic religion Islam via Sufi variant of love unlike conquest that succumbed major parts of what was then pre-Islamic India while the western Bengali bretherns were firmly entrenched in native Indic religion called Hinduism (Infact there are a province in the Indian Union called West Bengal), these Eastern Bengalis in majority (The Hindu minority mostly emigrated to neighboring India or elsewhere) had succumbed to Arabic religion and name (Bangleshis today bear mostly Moslem names except few unlike Indian Bengalis who use native names) but somehow (Hint Islam came here not as conquest but spiritual affinity) kept the native language and food, thus came to loggerhead to nation of Pakistan which wanted to promote the Persian influenced Indian Moslem language of Urdu) and were treated as second class citizens of then Pakistan. Even today Bangladeshis are torn apart whether to go with Islamic millat (ie full allegience to Arab imperialism) or to build a secular (couldn't happen and is technically Islamic) Bengali nation with focus on prosperity and well being. Thus often we see rising fundamentalism in support of Arab imperialism on one hand, and on ther other hand we see sincere effort to eradicate poverty and uplift the value of human level to modern standards. May God Bless Bangladesh in her quest for freedom, democracy and prosperity!

The Economist team deserves our heartiest thanks for publishing such a wonderful write-up with analytical explanation and full of details about Bangladesh. You correctly mentioned ‘in terms of the success of its grass-roots development, Bangladesh has lessons for rest of the world.

Congratulation to Mr. Adam Robert, the Economist's Bureau Chief in Delhi and Tom Felix Joehnk., Hats off to them .

Stunted private sector? The country's elite has maintained a consensus in favour of social programmes? What contradiction! BRAC and Grameen don't have to be glorified at the cost of demeaning the private sector. Economist should do a full story on how resilient the private sector is. Really.
Besides, Bangladesh is "manusher" desh (country of the people) and its existence shouldn't be tagged to only NGOs. What a pity!

The story mentions "boom in the textile industry". I guess that was not enough tribute to the ready-made garments industry? The private sector is resilient. An example of its herculean efforts is how the RMG manufacturers maintain schedule despite strikes, work-disruptions, power failures and bad roads. However, one shortcoming of the private sector is its failure to exert influence on political leaders and its abject surrender to party-line politics. Post-independence petty-socialism has cast a stigma on entrepreneurism, which still inflicts the private sector. To authenticate their wealth and influence, captains of the industry and heads of the chambers still masquerade as second or third tier political leaders. Without making any real difference, they only legitimize a sick political tradition. Private sector needs to speak with a stronger voice, shed the patronage that goes both ways and show an alternative.